Whether you:

Operate from a traditional wholesale store or grow or display product in a greenhouse

Let’s talk about delivering a plan to protect your floral business. A Hortica agent will guide you in designing a comprehensive plan to protect the solid business foundation you have built.

You’ll learn how we can provide protection for:

Loss of flowers, plants and profits

Buildings, including greenhouses

Seasonal variations in your inventory

Your most valuable asset – your employees

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Insurance for Wholesale Floral Distributors

You belong to a small but important fraternity. The transfer mechanism between the grower and the retailer is the wholesale florist. Sounds simple, but your business is not only crucial, but complicated and challenging to say the least.

Wholesale florists have a few common characteristics: Perishable goods storage and shipping, seasonal inventories of hard goods and giftware, typically large warehouse structures and fleets of delivery vehicles.

Perishable goods storage and shipping presents a major challenge. Spoilage of your inventory can cause you major cash flow and profitability problems. Accidental loss of cooling or heating is a very common problem for wholesale florists. Don’t be fooled: though most commercial insurance policies and agents will offer insurance protection, the terms can vary widely. How is the ruined product valued? What limitations or restrictions exist for the coverage?

Your years of experience have taught you how to order ahead for seasonal variations. Some call it Murphys’ Law, but it isn’t uncommon for disaster to strike at the worst possible time. Some insurance policies build in automatic increases for seasonal variation. Problems arise if you rely on the normal 25% increase to take care of the variation in value of your inventory. A specialized and knowledgeable agent can craft your floral distribution insurance policy to maximize coverage during peak periods, and minimize the additional premium to accomplish that.

As large as your refrigerated storage is, it is sometimes not enough. A common solution is to bring in refrigerated trailers as temporary storage for product at times such as Valentine’s Day. Have you ever tried to purchase insurance coverage for the breakdown of the compressor on such a unit? Have you ever tried to recover for lost product from a supplier of a unit that goes bad? Temporary storage such as this is treated very differently by different insurance companies.

Delivery and the fleet exposure are two sides of the same coin. Whereas fire can be devastating to a wholesale florist, the more common trouble area comes from the fleet of delivery trucks and the drivers you employ. Every owner speaks to safety and safe driving. Why do some fleets operate with minimal incidents year in and year out, while others constantly struggle? It usually starts at the top. And it starts with hiring. “It is difficult to find good help.” This is true. Another truth, “you hire your problems.” “I don’t have time to go through the full hiring process every time.” If you don’t take the time, you might find yourself paying more for insurance than your competition because your drivers keep running into things.

Once hired, even good professional drivers need reminders of safety consciousness. Put someone in charge and make someone accountable for all things safety related for your fleet. For more ideas on how to control this expense and get an advantage over your competition, a specialist carrier of your floral distribution insurance plan will have loss control and safety specialists well versed in appropriate and effective methods for controlling losses.

Business conditions dictate that your store be inviting, well stocked with attractive displays and safe. Adequate aisles, properly stacked and stored inventory and specialized fire control equipment such as automatic sprinklers and alarms all work to reduce incidents and minimize damage when something does happen. Does your insurance company recognize your efforts with credits? Does your insurance company even know what your store looks like on the inside?

Beware of taking an off-the-shelf insurance plan to protect your business. At Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits, our agents, our underwriters and our sales people are all specialized in recognizing and addressing the hazards of your business, and offering suitable solutions.